Bears crushing the bulls : Index slumps further in red

KARACHI: Terrible Tuesday followed monstrous Monday. By day end, bears had crushed the morning efforts by bulls where KSE100 index dropped by 545.84 points after escalating 209.32 points in the morning.

The market ignored lower-than-consensus inflation reading of 2.73% for November. Political noise and imposition of a further Rs 40 billion in taxes dented market sentiments further. The index knocked off 545.84 points to break the 32,000 psychological mark, reaching 31,709.36, making it the 11th consecutive session of market decline. KMI-30 bled profusely, losing over 1,000 points for the second session and closed at 52,473.01pts.

KSE All Share chipped off 365.01 points. The volumes increased during the session due to continued selling pressure. They improved by 32.6% from Monday to touch 189.27, highest of past eight sessions.

The commercial banks were highest traded with volumes of 23.84 million. The Bank of Punjab (BOP; -6.22%) ended as the volume leader and major loser in the sector. The sector faced selling pressure since the State Bank released figures reporting highest spread in a decade. Big players, Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and United Bank Limited (UBL), faced a downside of 1.83% and 1.08% respectively.

Bloodshed was witnessed across the board as 44 scripts plummet to lower lock, as yet another day of -5% for Automobile Assemblers Ghandhara Industries (GHNL), Ghandhara Nissan (GHNI) and Hinopak Motors.

The wait was over on Tuesday as Pakistan’s biggest IPO company, Amreli Steels Limtied (ASTL), started trading for the first time. It was worth the wait, the stock maintained a strong upper lock at Rs 53.55.

Foreigners were net sellers for another session. They closed the day with net selling of $8.17 million taking the YTD value to $272.05 million. Local Mutual Funds didn’t change trends either and offloaded $2.06 million.